


Shining Diamonds

by deadfairies



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, College Band, Drunk Hookups, Heavy Drinking, Hickeys, M/M, edgy boys, house party bathroom makeout sessions, lil gay boys, seungcheol just wants a happy band for once oml, smoking weed, this has explicit scenes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:14:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25196017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadfairies/pseuds/deadfairies
Summary: Soonyoung forms a band with twelve other unique and eccentric college freshman called 17 CARAT, with their goals being fame and fortune, all while having to deal with the stresses of their decisions and going into adulthood as well as keeping their friendship strong.
Relationships: Boo Seungkwan/Lee Jihoon | Woozi, Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Yoon Jeonghan, Chwe Hansol | Vernon/Hong Jisoo | Joshua, Chwe Hansol | Vernon/Xu Ming Hao | The8, Hong Jisoo | Joshua/Wen Jun Hui | Jun, Jeon Wonwoo/Kim Mingyu, Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Yoon Jeonghan, Lee Jihoon | Woozi/Lee Seokmin | DK, Xu Ming Hao | The8 & Yoon Jeonghan
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

It's been a rough start of the week so far for Seungcheol. He just had to finish some stupid pop-quiz for his philosophy class which he believed he totally flunked. He never paid attention in that stupid class, he didn't even know why he even bothered showing up in the first place. It was all a waste of time, and it was only Tuesday.

Seungcheol needed a stress reliever fast, before he did something he knew he would regret later. He wanted to hang out with a certain someone today, and he knew exactly where to find him. Pledis University was one of the greatest music and performing arts colleges in Korea, especially for those who played instruments. It was hard to get into, and even harder to pass, due to the high standards of academics that were expected there, but Seungcheol and his small friend group were able to stick together and make it through the tough acceptance process.

He walked into the music practice room and found Jeonghan sitting at one of the keyboards they kept there, playing and singing an unidentifiable song. He sounded absolutely heavenly. His soft vocals complimenting the light, ethereal sound of the song he was singing to himself, completely unaware that Seungcheol was standing in the doorway with his arms folded, looking at the other.

"Seems like you're in the zone." Seungcheol commented, startling Jeonghan out of his one-man performance for himself, causing him to accidentally hit the wrong note on the keyboard and give the other an annoyed stare. "Yes, I am. My vocal team professor is having an evaluation tomorrow, and I want to be at the top of the group, so I have to practice like hell to make sure I don't get laid off."

Seungcheol chuckled dryly and walked over to his friend. "I really liked it. I'm sure you'll do great during that evaluation." He told the light blonde haired male. "You say that now, but I have no clue what's going to happen when I'm performing in front of that professor. He's insanely strict, and doesn't pull any punches with criticism. What if he doesn't like it? What if I tense up?" The blonde held his head in his hands. "This needs to be perfect. No mistakes, no distractions. If you'd desire, you may sit here and watch me perform from the beginning."

The other nodded, pulling up a chair and sitting in front of Jeongan's keyboard to watch him play. "The floor is yours." Seungcheol smiled, looking at the blonde attentively. Jeonghan looked a little hesitant, but the male pushed his nervousness aside, beginning to play the intro to the song on the keyboard. It sounded like a sad song at first, but as he started singing, the lyrics sounded hopeful. Almost a little romantic if one thought hard enough about it. The blonde was a little nervous at the start, but as the song progressed, his soft vocals became stronger and clearer.

Once the song came to a close, Seungcheol looked at his friend in awe, giving him a short round of applause. "Wow, Hannie...That was amazing. I'm sure the professor will love it." The blonde tucked some of his chin-length hair behind his ear shyly, crossing his legs. "Thank you. I guess I can only hope that the professor enjoys my performance. You don't understand, Cheol...Being in that vocal team means everything to me. I'll finally be able to sing on stages to other people! Being on that team gives me a chance of success. A chance to achieve the life I've always wanted."

Seungcheol nodded, wanting to fully support Jeonghan's dream of stardom, but at the same time...Being a famous singer was such a risky job. You never know what may happen if you take a career path like that. Not like he didn't have faith in one of his bestest friends. Of course he did! But...Still. Seungcheol just had a bad feeling about the dreams Jeonghan wanted to pursue. If only they could do something /together/...

"Yeah. I get it." Seungcheol sighed to himself. If only he could be by his side 24/7 to help and give his friend more confidence, but that wouldn't really work out for either of them schedule-wise. Before Seungcheol could even get up and leave the band room, one of his other best friends who he knew before college, Soonyoung, walked in holding an iced coffee from the college cafe.

"Oh my god! What are you two lovebirds doing in here? Hopefully I'm not interrupting anything." Soonyoung teased at the both of them, grabbing a chair and sitting close to Seungcheol. Jeonghan scoffed, standing up and moving the keyboard back to its original position. "You're interrupting the peaceful atmosphere. What do you want, Kwon?"

Soonyoung giggled, leaning onto Seungcheol's shoulder. "Cheol...Hannie is being mean to me." He whined, taking a long sip of iced coffee. Seungcheol nervously smiled at him, patting his friend's short blonde hair. "Oh, Soonyoung, how's the dance team going for you?" He asked the boy leaning on his shoulder. Soonyoung sat up and crossed his legs, shrugging nonchalantly. "Oh, I quit."

Jeonghan turned around from putting the keyboard away with a shocked expression on his face. Even Seungcheol raised his eyebrows at him. "You what?!" Jeonghan exclaimed, refusing to believe what he said just now. "Yeah. I don't know, I just felt like it wasn't my thing. I still love dancing and everything, I just don't think I want to continue that career path, so I'll be taking regular advanced music classes until I'm certain on the path I want to take."

Seungcheol and Jeonghan looked at Soonyoung in silence, before Seungcheol finally found the right words to even respond to that. "I mean...Whatever makes you happy, Soonyoung. But I hope you know that once you drop out of one of those teams, there's no going back." The short haired blonde nodded, drinking from the coffee cup. "Yeah, I know. I just think it's a little too demanding, y'know? Like choreography they were making us do...It was so difficult. Not only that, but my schedule is packed enough as it is, so forget about practicing for evaluations. Overall it just wasn't working out, so I quit."

Jeonghan stared at the floor, thinking about the vocal team he was in. No, no. Definitely not. He wasn't going to even think about quitting that team just because his other friend may have grown tired of it. Singing in front of audiences was his dream ever since he was a child, and to pass that up now would be putting all of his tireless efforts to waste. But was he truly satisfied with being a lone singer?

"You alright, Hannie? You look a little down." Seungcheol looked at him with a half smile. Jeonghan's expression didn't get any happier. "Yes, I'm just thinking. Um...I'm going to go get some coffee. I'll call you when I'm back at the apartment."

Soonyoung stood up from the chair. "I'll come with you! I have a discount at the college cafe." 

The blonde shook his head. "No, I won't be going to the college cafe. I'm going to the one a block or two away. See you two later."

Jeonghan picked up his crossbody bookbag off of the side of his chair and left the music practice room, leaving the other two behind. There wasn't enough time to dwell on Soonyoung's words. He had an evaluation tomorrow and he couldn't afford to get laid off. He just couldn't.


	2. Chapter 2

Jeonghan left the music room with a head full of doubts. He couldn't stand to stay any longer, knowing that continuing to listen to Soonyoung could mess up his chances of staying in the vocal team. He had to focus on one thing and one thing only, the evaluation. He knew that he wanted to do this. He knew in his heart he wanted to become a singer, but hearing his friend's experience with his own team really made him think.

The blonde was so deep in his thoughts, that he didn't even notice the maroon haired male he crashed into while turning to enter the coffee shop. The other was holding an iced coffee in his hands, the cold liquid spilling all over his sweater once Jeonghan ran into him. He was a couple inches taller than Jeonghan and had a nice build. Not exactly much muscle, but he was definitely on the intimidating side. The blonde immediately backed away, bowing apologetically. "Oh my god I'm so sorry..! I-If you need napkins or anything I'll-" "Watch where you're going next time." The chill in the brunette's voice could have freezed hell over twice. "Y-Yeah I'm so sorry I could buy you a replacement coffee or sweater or anything." Jeonghan anxiously rambled, wanting himself to just shut up before he made things worse.

The brunette chuckled, but it had a more mocking tone than a friendly one. "'Replacement sweater'? This sweater was over a hundred dollars." Jeonghan internally cursed at himself. Dammit. He was so careless and anxious, all over some vocal team evaluation. "If you want to make use of yourself, I suggest you get napkins from inside and then get lost." He hissed, eyeing the clumsy male in front of him. How did Jeonghan not see him coming? However, what interrupted his thoughts was the university ID hanging around the other's neck that he spotted. "You go to Pledis..?" The dark red haired male asked, stopping Jeonghan from entering the coffee shop.

"What? Um- Yes, I do. Are you also a student from the university?" The blonde's nerves eased up a little, but Jeonghan still felt intimidated in his presence. "I am a student, yes. I'm surprised you don't know who I am..? 'Ace' of the dance team, Xu Minghao?" The brunette seemed a little disappointed with the other for not knowing who he was, but Jeonghan recognized the name and his nervousness immediately kicked back up. "You're Minghao?! Oh my god I'm so sorry our first meeting had to be like this. I've heard your name floating around but I never thought..."

Minghao folded his arms in front himself, leaning against the door of the almost empty cafe. Not many people went there since it was so close to the college cafe, but a few did if they just wanted some peace and quiet. It was Minghao's favorite place to study, read a book by himself, or get a break away from his loud friends. "It's...Fine. I would have been more angry if it was just some random boy from the streets, but I'll let this one slide. Just this once."

"Thank you so much, Minghao. I- I'll get those napkins right now, okay?" The blonde briskly walked into the coffee shop, going up to the table where all the sugar, cinnamon, milk and etc. was and getting about fifteen of the light brown, thin, flimsy napkins before walking at an even faster pace outside to find Minghao conversing with another individual who had chin length dark brown hair, who seemed to be very giddy and excited as he was talking. Minghao on the other hand, looked very uninterested and bored, but the other strangely didn't seem to pick it up.

Jeonghan walked up to the two shyly, handing the napkins to the brunette in the sweater, while the other boy abruptly stopped talking. "Here are the napkins you requested. I'll be on my way now. I'm so sorry for ruining your clothes like that." He muttered sheepishly, about to walk away until he heard "Oh Xuxu, is that your new friend? I knew you would make new friends this year! Hi, hello. My name's Hansol. Nice to meet you!"

Jeonghan blinked at him a few times, forcing a friendly smile before shaking Hansol's hand. He didn't want to be in this mix. He had an evaluation to focus on. "Nice to meet you, Hansol. I'm Jeonghan. And I think you must be mistaken, because your friend and I just met a short while ago under unforeseen circumstances and are parting as simple acquaintances." He tried to be as nice as he could, but he couldn't help the urgency leaking into his tone. So much for the coffee shop trip. He just wanted to go home at that point.

"Oh, you guys aren't friends? Sorry for assuming! But nice to meet you anyways, Jeonghan." Hansol smiled at the blonde, as Minghao stared at Jeonghan with an expression he couldn't read. Jeonghan tried to ignore the taller's eyes on him as he waved and walked away from the pair, turning around once he thought he was far enough and almost running to the bus stop, he was walking so fast. The sooner he got home the longer he could practice for the evaluation, and the less he had to worry about getting laid off the vocal team.

On the bus ride, the blonde sat in one of the empty seats, busying himself with his phone. He opened one of the apps he installed and started absentmindedly playing one of those crappy games that had no goal and were full of ads, before a call from Seungcheol startled him from his daze. "Hello?" Jeonghan softly spoke as he accepted the call, not wanting to talk too loud on the bus and bring attention to himself. "Hey, I just wanted to call. Are you still at the cafe?" His voice on the phone was a lot deeper than real life, Jeonghan kept having to remind himself. But it startled him every time he answered a call from the other.

"No, I decided to just go home. I got into an 'accident' with Minghao." Jeonghan could hear Soonyoung all the way in the background in the room he was in on the other end. Seungcheol must have been on speaker. "You got into an accident with Minghao?! You aren't hurt, are you?" The blonde could hear the panic in his friend's voice, but he just chuckled softly at the younger's concern. "No, no I'm alright. As I was entering the cafe, I accidentally bumped into him and the iced coffee he was holding went all over his...Expensive sweater..." Soonyoung gasped aloud, while Seungcheol was probably just sitting there with his head in his hands, wondering how the hell one of his friends got into that mess.

"What did he say?" Seungcheol finally said after a long pause. "Well...He was really intimidating, and I felt like he was about to beat me into a pulp until he saw my Pledis University ID, so he let me off on a warning as I got him a bunch of napkins to help him clean up. I also met one of his friends named Hansol. Do either of you know him, even though I don't think you've ever mentioned his name?"

Another moment of silence on the other end. "I actually have. He's apart of the music constructing team. You know, the kids who are aspiring producers. It sounds like a fun career path, don't you think?" Seungcheol asked, but Soonyoung's question overlapped the last part of what he was saying. "Is Minghao hot when he's mad?" Jeonghan could hear Seungcheol playfully swatting at the other, as he giggled in reaction to it. "...A little, I guess. But don't tell anyone I said that, guys. I'm serious."

"Don't worry, Hannie! Pinky swear." Soonyoung sang, as the blonde instantly regretted saying what he said, wondering which one of his gossipping buddies his friend was going to report to the next day. "Are you two at the dorms right now?" Jeonghan asked to change the subject. His stop was coming up on the bus, so he had to go soon. "Yeah, we were just chilling until I decided to call. I have an essay to do, since I totally flunked that quiz my philosophy professor made us do today." Seungcheol sighed, both stressed and disappointed in himself for failing a quiz he could have easily passed. If only he actually committed himself to that damned class, but it was so boring.

"Good luck on your essay then, Cheol." Jeonghan smiled, standing up with his bag on his shoulder as he left the bus. "I'm almost home, so...I'll call you guys later tonight. If not, then see you two tomorrow, okay?" The blonde unlocked the door to the apartment building, walking up to the second floor to his apartment. "Thanks, Jeonghan. Also, see you tomorrow-" "Bye Hannie!" Soonyoung screamed from the other side of the room, cutting off Seungcheol. "Mm-hm. Bye." Jeonghan sang as he hung up the phone, unlocking the door to his apartment then leaning against the door. He was tired, but there was little to no time to sleep. He had to practice for that vocal evaluation that was the next day.


End file.
